A ROYAL Navy nuclear-armed submarine has returned from a 204-day patrol — amid fears the epic deployments are now the “new normal”.
The Vanguard class sub, armed with Trident Two missiles, spent six months, two weeks and six days on patrol.
It was designed to spend 80 days at a time at sea when it entered service 30 years ago.
Former sub captain Ryan Ramsey said he was “amazed by the crew and disappointed that we ended up here”.
A shortage of working submarines has forced sailors to endure longer patrols to ensure one sub is always at sea.
The craft set sail on March 12 as the UK’s designated nuclear deterrent submarine and returned this week.
The patrol was on par with a record 204 days set by another sub in the nuclear armed fleet earlier this year.
The last nine nuclear patrols have all been over five months long, according to experts at news site Navy Lookout.
The former Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said: “There is something wrong when sailors are having to put to sea for extraordinarily long patrols in complex machines that are beyond their original design life.”
He blamed the issue on “successive governments”.
Sailors on UK nuclear patrols cannot contact families as any broadcast can reveal their position.
They receive one text message a week, which is censored by the captain to avoid news which could affect performance.
A new Dreadnought class of subs is due to enter service with the Royal Navy in the 2030s.
